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Swamp Thing Halloween Special Issue 1
Synopsis "Hollow" *Coming Soon "The Pumpkin Sinister" In a pumpkin field, two middle-aged men, clearly a pastiche of Charlie Brown and Linus are attempting to perform a bizarre ritual. They have just sacrificed one of their dogs (what appears to be Snoopy), and are talking about revenge against the man who humiliated one of them, and continuously mocked the other one for spending his Halloween's sitting in a pumpkin patch. Finally, they raise their giant monster from the ground, a pumpkin-headed creature called "The Pumpkin Sinister", who is apparently bound to obey their every command. They command it to kill their tormentor, Daniel Cassidy (The Blue Devil). The monster finds him, and nearly kills Blue Devil before he is able to get hold of his trident. A trident blast, combined with a destructive spell from Enchantress, is able to blow up The Pumpkin Sinister's head, spattering Pumpkin goop everywhere. Enchantress finds the two men from before lurking in the nearby brush, who Blue Devil names as Harley and Dennis, asking them what the whole thing was about. Harley angrily accuses Blue Devil of stealing his true love, the Red-Headed Girl, who based on a story Blue Devil told earlier appears to have been his first kiss. Blue Devil pushes the enraged man down, and walks off with Enchantress. "Taert ro Kcirt" On Halloween night, a group of teenagers decide to imitate Scarecrow's M.O., creating their own fear toxin and putting it in the candy that they give to trick or treaters. After a young boy eats a piece of their candy, he hallucinates violently and is taken to the local hospital in a near comatose state. Zatanna, who is performing a magic show in the hospital's Children's Ward cures the child, and in a rage visits all of the effects of the fear drug instead on the offending teenagers at their party. The party erupts with violence as the teens try to fight off their personal demons, and when the police burst in to stop it and calm down the party they arrest the teens for their "stash of illicit narcotics". After the trial, where the offenders are found guilty, Zatanna is seen continuing to torment them with their personal fears even as they lie in their hospital beds. "Strange Cargo" Jimmy and Lois are investigating a tip Jimmy got that Luthor is bringing something dangerous into the city, that is docked in the harbor. They pick the lock on a container with his insignia, and find a horde or ravenous zombies inside, who immediately chase after them. Superman hears them from space, and comes to their rescue. He finds they have a property he can't identify, either Kryptonite or Magic, that is causing him to weaken and his skin to become more susceptible as they pile onto him and try to eat him. Jimmy shouts out that the creatures are already dead, so Superman doesn't have to hold back, and unrestrained he shoves them all back into the crate, breaking many of them, and dumps the crate on the moon. The story ends with the zombies wandering around the moon looking for prey. "The Ballad of Jonathan Crane" *Coming Soon "Night Gods" *Coming Soon "Night of the Reaper" On Halloween, the annual Vermont parade is taking place and Dick Grayson has decided to attend with some of his college friends. While in the parade, Dick and his friends notice some crooks attacking a man dressed as Robin and they try to help the young man without success. When the crooks have dispersed, Dick decides to follow them as Robin and he follows their trail to a barren space where he finds a the corpse of a man in a Batman costume. At that moment, Robin is attacked by the dark figure of the Reaper and he is forced to flee until he falls down to a nearby river and remains unconscious. Batman, who has been tracking an ex-Nazi war criminal to the annual Halloween parade, finds Robin and takes him to the house of Tom Fagan, the organizer of the Vermont parade. In Fagan's place, Robin is checked by Batman's friend, Doctor Benjamin Gruener, a German survivor of the Nazi holocaust. Meanwhile, Dick's friends are looking for him when they come across the Reaper again and when Batman lears of this second attack, he starts investigating the case more closely. However, his clues lead him to find the Nazis and stop them for good, despite the fact that he couldn't prevent one last man from being killed by them. Afterwards, Robin believes that the case is solved, but Batman reminds him that the Reaper is still on the loose and Batman starts looking for the killer by himself. When they finally meet, Batman has deduced the Reaper's identity as Dr. Gruener, who sought revenge against the Nazis he hated. Unfortunately, Gruener has lost himself in his Reaper's personality and he attacks Batman before fleeing the scene. The Reaper tries to make his escape through a nearby dam, but he is stopped by the presence of Dick Grayson's friends. When Reaper gets ready to strike and kill the youngsters, he sees his Star of David amulet and he becomes horrified with his actions. Unaware that he was walking on the edge of the dam, Gruener stumbles with his robe and falls downwards to his ultimate death and Batman is unable to save the man. "The Origin of Swamp Thing" Sometime in the last century, Alex Olsen and Damien Ridge had been best friends. However, they both vied for the affections of a woman named Linda. Linda eventually married Alex and Damien had to endure his heartache in the form of the supportive friend. But his desire for Linda overrode the bonds of friendship and he conspired to eliminate Alex. He sabotaged the equipment in Alex's lab causing an explosion that killed him. Keeping the knowledge hidden from Linda, Damien buried Alex's body in the swamp. Damien eventually married the widow Olsen and they lived together in an old Victorian plantation house. But Linda never recovered from Alex's death. As months passed, Damien began to suspect that Linda might soon learn the truth, so he prepared to kill her. But Alex had been resurrected as a swamp thing and broke into the house and killed Damien. Linda fled from the creature in horror, never realizing that the beast who saved her was her beloved Alex. Appearances "Hollow" Individuals *Coming Soon "The Pumpkin Sinister" Individuals *Blue Devil *Enchantress *The Pumpkin Sinister "Taert ro Kcirt" Individuals *Zatanna "Strange Cargo" Individuals *Jimmy Olsen *Lois Lane *Superman *Zombies Locations *Metropolis "The Ballad of Jonathan Crane" Individuals *Batman *Jim Gordon *Scarecrow *Gotham City Police Department Locations *Gotham City Items *Scarecrow's Fear Toxin "Night Gods" Individuals *Aquaman *Demon *Whitford Crane *Night Gods *Zombies *Philip Locations *Atlantic Ocean "Night of the Reaper" Individuals *Batman *Robin *Nazis **Hans *The Reaper *Tom Fagan *Colonel Kurt Schloss *Alan and two other friends of Dick Grayson (based on Alan Weiss, Gerry Conway and Bernie Wrightson) Locations *Gotham City *Vermont **Rutland "The Origin of Swamp Thing" Individuals *Swamp Thing (Alex Olsen) *Linda Olsen Ridge *Damian Ridge Behind the Scenes *Coming Soon Notes *Coming Soon Trivia *Coming Soon See Also *''Batman'' #237 *''DC Universe Halloween Special'' #1 *''House of Secrets'' #92 *''Infinite Halloween Special'' #1 *''The Brave and the Bold'' Vol. 3, #32 External Links *''Swamp Thing Halloween Special'' Issue 1 on DC Wiki *[https://comicvine.gamespot.com/swamp-thing-halloween-horror-1/4000-687269/ Swamp Thing Halloween Special Issue 1] on Comic Vine Category:Comic Books